Prehospital, Austere and Tactical Ultrasound

Jamie McLean, MD - Co-Chair

Jon Warren, MD - Co-Chair

Cameron Wolterstorff, MD, FACEP - Co-Chair

Sarah M. Gartner, MD - Immediate Past Co-Chair

Sean E. Scott, MD - Immediate Past Co-Chair

 

Goals

  1. Continue to build our subcommittee base with colleagues interested in advancing and utilizing ultrasound in prehospital, austere, and tactical settings.
  2. Work toward making a standard protocol or white paper regarding ultrasound use in cardiac arrest in prehospital environments.
  3. Create an Austere Toolkit for Point-of-care Ultrasound.
  4. Create a table of current ultrasound devices, with their strengths and weaknesses for austere environments.

White Paper on Tactical Ultrasound

Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) is an essential part of military medicine as practiced in far-forward and austere environments. Military Emergency Physicians have embraced the use of the Extended Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma, as well as musculoskeletal, ocular, and all other core ultrasound modalities in caring for patients in resource-limited environments.

The Army, Air Force, and Navy all offer military ultrasound fellowships, located at bases around the country. These fellowships are located in high-acuity facilities, including a level 1 trauma center, and are focused on producing physicians capable of performing any emergency medicine ultrasound in any environment.

Military Emergency Physicians serve as leaders in military point-of-care ultrasound and provide instruction to other physicians and medical providers across a range of specialties, including pre-deployment and Individual Critical Task List training at sites across the United States.

Military Medicine is a leader in the use of ultrasound by medical providers other than physicians. The San Antonio Military Medical Center and Madigan Army Medical Center have two of the only Physician Assistant (PA) Ultrasound Fellowship programs in the country, focused on providing education to future PA educators and leaders.

As ultrasound machines became more compact, mobile, and less costly, EMS agencies have acquired machines and expanded the use of point-of-care ultrasound on their patients. Critical care transports, air medicine, and wilderness providers are also increasingly using ultrasound.

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